What drives development at immediately’s quickest rising consulting firms?
For over a decade, we’ve been asking this query and discovering the solutions in our annual Excessive Development Examine. Since its inception, this analysis venture has tracked the evolving advertising and marketing methods of profitable consulting companies. The 2025 Excessive Development Examine: Consulting Version reveals the crucial components that separate immediately’s quickest rising consulting firms from the remainder of the pack.
In immediately’s weblog put up, we’ll share just a few of the findings of this 12 months’s analysis report on consulting firms. You should purchase the complete analysis report on your firm right here.
The Quickest Rising Consulting Firms
Right now’s consulting companies are wrestling with a number of points, a lot of which have been with them for years, corresponding to value sensitivity, a expertise scarcity, generational adjustments within the workforce, and the necessity to develop new expertise. However additionally they face challenges distinctive to this second.
The 2025 Excessive Development Examine gives a complete evaluation of those challenges and the methods that Excessive Development companies make use of to beat them.
Regardless of the various challenges confronted by companies that promote consulting providers, the Excessive Development companies grew at a powerful clip: a minimum of 20% compound annual development price over a three-year analysis interval. They symbolize simply over a 3rd of the pattern of 384 consulting companies who participated within the examine.
With a development price of 41.7%, the Excessive Development companies grew 4.4 instances quicker than common—a big enchancment over final 12 months’s efficiency, when median development for the top-performing cohort was 35%.
What can we study from these quick rising firms? How are they responding to the challenges of immediately’s market? Which advertising and marketing methods do they make use of? Let’s check out a few of the findings from the complete examine.
Discovering 1: AI and Automation Lead the Dialog
For the previous 5 years, a thrum of uncertainty has rattled the consulting providers panorama. In 2025, unpredictability remains to be with us, although its vibrations have diminished a bit to make means for a brand new seismic wave: the breakout of synthetic intelligence (AI).
In accordance with our knowledge, the consulting trade is grappling with incorporating AI and automation into their companies. This problem was reported to be the primary problem dealing with consulting firms immediately.
Your complete consulting trade is making an attempt to determine how AI goes to have an effect on their operations, service supply, and advertising and marketing. AI guarantees to remodel consulting—with all of the alternatives and threats that include disruptive change.
On the identical time, AI is altering the way in which providers are marketed. Whether or not or not these guarantees are stored stays to be seen, however AI’s sharp ascent to prominence is really outstanding. It’s no shock that AI has shot to the highest of companies’ record of largest challenges.
Discovering 2: Content material Creation Is Right here to Keep
Like final 12 months (and the 12 months earlier than), creating content material stays the highest advertising and marketing precedence for Excessive Development consulting companies.
In a pool of choices together with over a dozen choices (together with partnership advertising and marketing, advertising and marketing expertise, purchaser journey mapping, creating thought leaders, and extra), the Excessive Development consulting firms chosen creating content material as their high advertising and marketing precedence for 2025.
Clearly, content material advertising and marketing continues to play a serious function in these companies’ success.
Excessive Development consulting companies perceive that producing instructional, useful content material showcases their thought leaders and builds belief with potential purchasers. This strategy aligns with a number of key findings from the 2025 Excessive Development Examine. Content material advertising and marketing serves as a strong engine for producing digital leads, utilizing beneficial, knowledgeable insights to seize the eye of potential consumers. It additionally enhances the usage of case tales, which may present particular examples, and context, additional demonstrating a agency’s capabilities (see Discovering 4 under).
By persistently delivering high-quality content material, companies can differentiate their model in a aggressive market and set up themselves as thought leaders. That is significantly essential within the face of rising competitors from new companies and the evolving panorama of AI. Content material creation additionally gives tangible metrics for measuring advertising and marketing effectiveness, permitting companies to trace web site site visitors, content material downloads, and social media engagement. In brief, content material builds belief, generates leads, demonstrates experience, and positions a agency as an trade chief.
Discovering 3: Excessive Development Consulting Companies Generate Digital Leads
Excessive Development consulting firms generate a good portion of leads digitally—and notably greater than their friends within the No Development class. They obtain about 40% of their leads on-line. Digital leads come from varied sources, together with web site contact varieties, content material advertising and marketing, social media, webinars, and digital promoting.
This can be a benchmark for digital lead era, however we imagine it may—and possibly ought to—be increased. As you possibly can see intimately within the full report, even Excessive Development companies haven’t achieved the best ranges of digital maturity with consistency. As that scenario improves, we count on this quantity to extend.
Discovering 4: Consulting Companies Use Detailed Case Tales in Their Advertising and Enterprise Growth
After we take a look at which methods are used most frequently by the quickest rising consulting companies, creating and publishing case tales got here in second—a discovering distinctive to the consulting trade.
What does this inform us about how these firms attraction to their consumers? Case tales show previous efficiency and showcase success in a related and compelling format. They construct belief and resonate with potential purchasers. They supply tangible proof of experience. Additionally they present the influence of providers. By highlighting particular consumer challenges and profitable outcomes, case tales present a strong option to show the worth of a agency’s providers.
How accessible are your agency’s case tales? Are they revealed in your web site? Do you function the tales in your different advertising and marketing supplies? Have you ever tried delivering them in different codecs, corresponding to video?
Discovering 5: Excessive Development Consulting Companies Outsource Specialised Advertising Duties
Outsourcing specialised advertising and marketing expertise is a technique Excessive Development consulting companies have used for a few years. On this 12 months’s report, we see that Excessive Development consulting companies outsource expertise extra usually than their No Development friends in practically each class we measured.
Topping the record are net design, search engine marketing, video manufacturing, and graphic design.
Outsourcing gives entry to specialists, the newest instruments, and cost-effective options. Excessive-quality outsourced suppliers will prioritize transparency about their outcomes, making it simpler to measure your return on funding. Be sure to rent companies or consultants that know your trade.
Discovering 6: Measuring and Using Advertising Metrics is a Mess
A brand new addition to this 12 months’s analysis was a query asking firms to price their proficiency in capturing and using advertising and marketing and enterprise improvement metrics. The information tells a transparent story: This can be a large problem for consulting organizations.
Whereas the quickest rising firms did report the next degree of proficiency than Low Development firms, the distinction was marginal. Three quarters of Low Development companies have low proficiency in utilizing metrics, in comparison with 60% of Excessive Development companies. This discovering highlights an enormous weak spot in each teams.
We requested those that reported low or some proficiency why they gave their ranking. Widespread solutions included time constraints, lack of devoted personnel, finances limitations, outdated expertise, and difficulties in connecting knowledge throughout platforms.
No skilled providers marketer will let you know that monitoring metrics is unimportant. However what’s clear from the information is that there’s a lot of labor to be accomplished on this entrance.
Dive Deeper with the Full Report
These findings provide a glimpse into the methods of the quickest rising consulting companies in 2025. The complete 2025 Excessive Development Examine: Consulting Providers Version gives a complete evaluation of the components driving success in immediately’s market. It provides detailed insights, data-driven suggestions, and actionable methods. This report is a useful useful resource for any consulting agency that desires to thrive within the face of change. Able to dive deeper and unlock the secrets and techniques of excessive development? Get the complete report right here.
